Priorities:Milwaukee School of Engineering Student Priorities

Overview

Michigan Tech’s campus is poised to be a model for student innovation and entrepreneurship. The State of Michigan has recognized the Houghton / Hancock area as a hotbed of innovation, and efforts to connect the School of Business and the School of Engineering are creating new business opportunities daily.

The problem isn’t ideas. It rarely ever is. Uniquely, Michigan Tech doesn’t suffer from a talent gap. Michigan Tech’s engineers are recruited around the globe for their hands-on experience and industry-focused education.

We’ll include a story to summarize the problem at Michigan Tech:  One day in early April, a venture capitalist (VC) from Silicon Valley came to Michigan Tech to do due-diligence on a new technology being developed in 3D printing. The VC gave a speech and discussed her time at Stanford. She said, “I never thought about being involved in venture capital, but when I got to school, everyone was talking about starting a business and I felt like I needed to get plugged into that ecosystem.” Michigan Tech lacks that passion, enthusiasm, and culture. These three strategies are designed to remedy that challenge.

A new center for innovation and entrepreneurship is the proposed solution. It uses new academic opportunities, event programming, and startup support to drive a culture shift towards innovation and entrepreneurship.

Strategies for Expansion of Innovation and Entrepreneurship on Campus

Strategy One: [Insert Name]

[2-3 paragraphs]

Strategy Two: [Insert Name]

[2-3 paragraphs]

Strategy Three: [Insert Name]

[2-3 paragraphs]

Strategy Four: Series of Innovative and Entrepreneurial Events

Once the first step of creating the makerspace on campus is complete, there a number of events, ideas, and activities that the space will be used for. One way the space will serve I&E is through different events on campus that are listed below. These include (but are not limited to) Speakers and TED Talks, Pop-Up Classes, an annual Make-a-thon, I&E Workshops, and a number of other events that are sure to pop up as the space becomes utilized and available to other groups on and off of campus. These events can be brought to the space by student organizations, faculty and staff, interested students, the community, professors for class applications, the unviersity, and a number of other avenues. Find example of activities below.

Speakers and TED Talks

Bringing speakers to our campus and our makerspace to talk about I&E would be an amazing way to motivate students to get involved and get thinking about I&E. We would like speakers to cover topics such as startups, design thinking, entrepreneurial financing, and many other topics.

We would really like to see the TED-X Speakers come to our campus and present to our students, faculty and staff, the community and any other interested party. TED talks would be a great way to expand knowledge and interest in the I&E field. We would also like to see our own faculty speak about the research that they are a part of outside of classes and office hours so that we can get to know what it is that they are truly passionate about.

Strategy Five: [Insert Name]

[2-3 paragraphs]

General Overview

http://universityinnovation.org/images/d/de/MTU_TecHX.png

Invention Space 

[Talk about the makerspace here]

Key Features:

Movable furniture: 

Prototyping supplies: 

Technology: 

Other: 

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